6 ms·

Why do you exclude the Abrahamic religions? They have plenty of magical thinking. When we were in college, I remember my best friend explaining that he blesses

Why do you exclude the Abrahamic religions? They have plenty of magical thinking. When we were in college, I remember my best friend explaining that he blesses his food to prevent food poisoning, for example. I was raised Baptist, and my parents attribute pretty much any good fortune for our family to divine intervention, to this day. I know Catholics who can instantly name the patron saint who can be asked to intercede on just about any topic.

lolinder 2y ago
I exclude them because if I include them then a lot of people here will assume that they can extrapolate, and abrahamic religions vary dramatically from the bulk of religions throughout history in that they do have an enormous moral component which is simply missing for most religions. This is especially true in mainline protestantism, which rejects most forms of ritual altogether. When people accuse evangelicals or whatnot of magical thinking they're not talking about the same thing that I'm talking about here. > I was raised Baptist, and my parents attribute pretty much any good fortune for our family to divine intervention, to this day. This is similar in some respects, but a key difference is that for most Baptists they don't believe that the Divine intervention came by performing a specific ritual. It comes by the will of God through the grace of Christ. Many Baptists will even firmly emphasize that your morality plays no role in whether God will intervene, so even the moral component doesn't serve the role of ritual. > I know Catholics who can instantly name the patron saint who can be asked to intercede on just about any topic. Catholicism in general is an exception to this, especially as practiced in places like Latin America. There, there is a large ritual component that does bear a strong resemblance to these kinds of religions. But it's easier to warn people from extrapolating from Abrahamic religions in general than it is to warn people from extrapolating from "Evangelicalism, Protestantism, Islam, Judaism, ...". The exceptions will be discovered, as long as you can interrupt the initial impulse to immediately associate things with what you already understand.

lolinder 2y ago

I exclude them because if I include them then a lot of people here will assume that they can extrapolate, and abrahamic religions vary dramatically from the bulk of religions throughout history in that they do have an enormous moral component which is simply missing for most religions. This is especially true in mainline protestantism, which rejects most forms of ritual altogether. When people accuse evangelicals or whatnot of magical thinking they're not talking about the same thing that I'm talking about here. > I was raised Baptist, and my parents attribute pretty much any good fortune for our family to divine intervention, to this day. This is similar in some respects, but a key difference is that for most Baptists they don't believe that the Divine intervention came by performing a specific ritual. It comes by the will of God through the grace of Christ. Many Baptists will even firmly emphasize that your morality plays no role in whether God will intervene, so even the moral component doesn't serve the role of ritual. > I know Catholics who can instantly name the patron saint who can be asked to intercede on just about any topic. Catholicism in general is an exception to this, especially as practiced in places like Latin America. There, there is a large ritual component that does bear a strong resemblance to these kinds of religions. But it's easier to warn people from extrapolating from Abrahamic religions in general than it is to warn people from extrapolating from "Evangelicalism, Protestantism, Islam, Judaism, ...". The exceptions will be discovered, as long as you can interrupt the initial impulse to immediately associate things with what you already understand.